Today, there are basically two strong trends, outsourcing and virtualization.
Outsourcing may be exemplified by an owner of a remote network leasing a server located in a providing network in order to, for example, minimize computer maintenance costs and the amount of computer hardware that is implemented at the location of the remote network. The remote network may thus be provided with a link to the providing network, which then may be connected to the leased server. The link may be provided over a packet-based communications network, such as, e.g. the Internet. The address domain space of the leased server forms part of the address domain space of the providing network.
Virtualization, as used herein, refers to the provision of virtual operating system instances or virtual machines to remote networks. The provision of virtual operating system instances is generally performed by having the virtual machines running on a virtualization platform in a providing network, which is connected to a packet-based communication network. The remote networks may via the packet-based communication network connect to and execute operations on the designated virtual machine(s) on the virtualization platform.
However, since the virtual machines are part of the providing network, every executed command on the virtual machines that involves transmitting or receiving data traffic to/from another network, such as, for example, a global interconnected communications network (e.g. the internet) or a private network (e.g. an email server in a company network), will be sent from or received at an IP address belonging to the IP address domain space of the providing network. The same applies to the outsourcing case when leasing a server.
This may cause problems for the owner of the providing network if the end users in the remote network use the remote network's designated virtual machine or leased server for unsuitable or illegal purposes, such as, for example, downloading copyrighted material, etc. The owner of the providing network may this way expose the IP address domain space of the providing network to misuse of the virtual machines or leased server by their end users. Thus, the owner of the providing network may be liable for said unsuitable or illegal activities performed by end users in the remote network.